“Applications to Trinity from Northern Ireland have dropped by around 20% this year as a result of uncertainty surrounding Brexit, according to Provost Patrick Prendergast. This drop is on top of a 20% decrease in applications from Northern Irish students last year …” (more)

“The Minister for Education and Skills Joe McHugh TD today (Tuesday 30 April) welcomed the publication of the Action Plan for Education 2019 Quarter 1 progress report. The Action Plan – Cumasú is based on the idea of empowering through learning. The Plan highlights the significant strategic reform programme under way in the education and training sector …” (more)

“Sinn Féin MLA Caoimhe Archibald has expressed deep concern at reports that the British Government intends to remove home status fees for EU students to study in Britain from 2021. The party’s further and higher education spokesperson said …” (more)

“This is an analysis (fisk?) of this article in the Irish Times by Barry O’Callaghan, former principal and chair of the National Association Association of Principals and Deputies (NAPD) leading for learning committee …” (more)

“Scholars voice outrage at Ulster University’s plans to confine ‘impartial’ records of conflict to history. It is one of the most important sources of information about the Troubles in Northern Ireland, a historical memory bank of data, stories and images used by scholars around the world. The Conflict Archive on the Internet (Cain) website, based in Derry, has taken two decades to build up an unrivalled encyclopaedic digital record of the conflict …” (more)

“Anna sat the Leaving Certificate in the summer of 2017 and secured a place in Trinity. She got 580 points, was pleased with her results, yet her next words nailed the problem: ‘If I was to sit it today, I wouldn’t get 200 points’. Four months on, she had forgotten what she had memorised …” (more)

“The European Union ‘will never accept’ a move by Theresa May to raise tuition fees for EU students after Brexit, the European Parliament’s Brexit chief has said. Guy Verhofstadt said he would write to the prime minister following reports that EU students would be charged full international fees, instead of benefiting from the same rates as UK students as now …” (more)

“The Union of Students in Ireland are calling upon the Irish Government to include the right to third-level education in the Higher Education Authority Bill 2020, currently being considered by the Department of Education. This comes after a country-wide student call for access to education, backed up by a motion unanimously passed at USI’s Annual Congress, 2019 …” (more)

“When I was a youngster I devoured popular science books. I watched the BBC science programme, Horizon, religiously, and Carl Sagan’s Cosmos was the highlight of the TV week for me. I was a bit of nerd. But as worked my through the education system and tried to find a happy medium between fascination and employability, I ended up studying chemical engineering …” (more)

“Most young people say they would consider taking an ‘earn and learn’ apprenticeship as an alternative to the more expensive option of college, new research indicates. However, only a minority – 18% – believe there are currently enough apprenticeship options available to choose from …” (more)

“As we stagger towards Week 11 of this twice-interrupted Semester I’m back in the office preparing stuff for another set of lectures. This term seems to have gone on forever, largely because of the two breaks (one at half-term around St Patrick’s Day, and other other for Easter). Now, though, the end is in sight …” (more)

“The spectre of the dead infants once confined in so-called Mother and Baby Homes is raising haunting questions for Irish universities. An entire chapter of the recently published fifth interim report of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation is devoted to the burial of ‘anatomical subjects’, infant dead bodies transferred to universities for dissection and anatomical study …” (more)

“Charging EU citizens full international student fees to study in England risks ‘pulling up the drawbridge’ after Brexit, higher education leaders and opposition parties have warned, calling on the government to clarify its policy …” (more)

“Ibec, ICTU, USI, American Ireland and British Irish Chamber of Commerce support Irish Universities Association calls for action on funding. The top leadership of the employers union, trades unions, student unions and industry representative bodies have today called for government action on the long-awaited reform of the funding of Irish university and higher education …” (more)

“Prof Terence Dolan, English academic and radio expert on all manner of phraseology and word use, has died following a long battle with illness. A former Emeritus Professor of English at the National University of Ireland (UCD), Prof Dolan was described on Friday as a man could ‘turn a sentence on a ha’penny’ and deftly produce a turn of phrase faster than Oscar Wilde …” (more)

“A UCC lecturer has said he was completely incensed to see recruitment posters for republican group Saoradh on the university campus. Investigative journalist Lyra McKee was shot and killed by the New IRA during riots in Derry last Thursday …” (more)

“University College Cork (UCC) has today signed contracts for the acquisition of Dairygold’s property in South Terrace for €17.25 million. Cork University Business School (CUBS) is to develop a new building on the site which will accommodate 4,000 students and 200 staff …” (more)

“Minister of State with special responsibility for Higher Education Mary Mitchell O’Connor today (25th April 2019) gave the closing address at a conference on Mental Health in Higher Education – Personal Wellbeing for Professional Development …” (more)

“Student grant rules for eligible Irish students in UK higher education institutions and UK students in Irish HEIs remain as usual for 2019/20. The Minister for Education and Skills Joe McHugh TD and Minister of State for Higher Education Mary Mitchell O’Connor TD today announced the opening of the Student Grant Scheme for applications for the 2019/20 academic year and highlighted a number of improvements that will benefit some of the most disadvantaged students …” (more)